Tigers' Justin Verlander wins AL Cy Young unanimously

There has been do doubt among baseball followers for some time that Justin Verlander would win this year's AL Cy Young Award. The question remains whether his magnificent season will earn him MVP honors as well.

That won't be answered until Monday, but for now Verlander will happily settle for claiming the first Cy Young of his career – and in unanimous fashion to boot.

The Detroit Tigers ace received all 28 first-place votes in balloting conducted by the Baseball Writers Association of America for the maximum 196 points.

The Los Angeles Angels' Jered Weaver finished second with 97 points and the Tampa Bay Rays' James Shields was third with 66.

"It means a lot,'' Verlander said. "There haven't been too many people who have gotten unanimous decisions, the last one being Johan.''

Johan Santana, then with the Minnesota Twins, won the last of his two unanimous Cy Youngs in 2006. Verlander's unanimous victory is the ninth in AL history.

Verlander blew away the competition by winning pitching's Triple Crown, leading the league in victories with a 24-5 record, ERA at 2.40 and strikeouts with 250. Verlander also pitched the most innings (251) and finished with the best WHIP – walks plus hits per innings pitched – at 0.92.

On top of becoming baseball's 12th Triple Crown winner in the last 50 years, Verlander threw his second career no-hitter on May 7 against the Toronto Blue Jays – only a walk kept him from a perfect game – and took two other no-hit bids into the eighth inning.

The no-hitter set him on course for the best season of his life.

"I had a different feeling in that game. I just felt very calm and relaxed,'' Verlander said. "And I remember thinking, 'Let's try to carry this over for the rest of the season, because it's working pretty good for me right now.'''

His mind-set changed from there on, to where he relied less on overpowering hitters, especially early in games, and more on offsetting their timing.

Verlander, 28, has been a dominant pitcher since his Rookie of the Year season in 2006, winning at least 17 games every season except 2008 and leading the league in wins, innings and strikeouts in 2009.

But he mastered the art of pitching this season while retaining the ability to throw the ball past hitters, who managed a league-low .192 batting average against him. Verlander's 174 hits allowed and 57 walks given up were both career bests, and his ERA was more than a run lower than his career standard (3.54).

It wasn't rare for Verlander to throw his fastball in the low 90s early in the game, then crank it up to 100 mph when he needed it later. He reached triple digits against his final batter in completing the May no-hitter.

"I felt like I evolved into a much better pitcher this year,'' he said. "That comes from slowing down and pitching to contact.''

Verlander became the third Tigers pitcher to win the Cy Young – Denny McLain did it twice, unanimously in 1968 and sharing it with Mike Cuellar in '69 – and there might be a bit of good karma for him in that fact.

Both McLain in '68 and closer Willie Hernandez in 1984 earned the Cy Young and the MVP on the same year. However, no starter in either league has been named MVP since Rogers Clemens in 1986, reflecting an increasing belief among voters that only in the most exceptional of circumstances are pitchers legitimate candidates for the MVP.

Even Tigers manager Jim Leyland supported that notion, although his conviction wavered as Verlander's exploits mounted over the season and he led Detroit to the AL Central championship.

Verlander said part of his case for the MVP is based on the huge impact he can have on the games he starts, but regardless of the outcome of that vote, he appreciated the award he had earned.

"If you had told at the beginning of the year that I was going to be a shoo-in for the Cy Young, I would have been absolutely ecstatic and amazed,'' he said. "I never even could have thought about the MVP until it came into the picture.''

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